Most household projects require the worker to use a variety of tools and materials during the course of the project. It is desirable to have assembled together in one place before beginning the project all of the tools and materials that are needed to complete the project. In addition to standard toolboxes, which, although easy to carry, are not suitable for many applications, 5-gallon buckets provided with "caddy" inserts are commonly used. However, these buckets are usually placed on the floor, which may require repeated stooping to retrieve tools and/or materials and to return them to the bucket when done. In addition, due to the weight of the tools and materials needed for the project, the bucket may be very difficult and cumbersome to move around as the project progresses.
In a related manner, in order to master the game of tennis, the general recommendation is to perform repetitive drills that simulate actual shotmaking. This requires that a sizable ready supply of balls be kept close at hand. However, merely using a storage bin placed on the court surface is impracticable, as it subjects the player and/or instructor to repeated and strenuous stooping to obtain balls for use in the practice. Further, whether these drills are performed alone, with the aid of an instructor, or with an automatic ball serving machine, a large number of tennis balls end up strewn about the court during the course of such practice. To retrieve all of these balls also requires repeated and strenuous stooping. This situation led to the development of ball retrieval and storage devices to minimize this labor.
A typical ball retrieval and storage device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,950 to Stap entitled "TENNIS BALL RETRIEVER AND STORAGE UNIT" and issued 5 Mar. 1968. The '950 device includes a roughly cube-shaped ball receptacle having U-shaped rigid arm members movably attached in parallel to opposite sidewalls of the receptacle. The U-shaped arm members serve in an upright position as a standard for the receptacle and in an inverted position as a handle for the receptacle. The receptacle has a bottom formed from a plurality of parallel rods spaced apart from one another slightly less than the diameter of the balls to be retrieved, so that a tennis ball may be squeezed between the bars to gain entry into the receptacle. To retrieve a tennis ball from the court surface without stooping to pick it up manually, a person carrying the receptacle by the handle formed when the U-shaped arm members are brought into the inverted position presses the receptacle bottom against the tennis ball resting on the court to automatically squeeze the balls into the receptacle.
A modification of the '950 device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,697 to Verde entitled "TENNIS BALL RETRIEVING STORAGE CONTAINER" and issued 1 Nov. 1983. The '697 device merely comprises the separation of the plurality of parallel rods forming the bottom of the receptacle to a distance slightly more than the diameter of the balls to be retrieved and the addition of freely rotating hollow, cylindrical tubular rollers axially journaled about the parallel rods such that the distance between inside surfaces of adjacent parallel rollers is slightly less than the diameter of the balls to be retrieved.
Other known devices modify this concept. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,351 to Cuti, entitled "TENNIS BUTLER" and issued 29 Nov. 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,161 to Stap, entitled "TENNIS BALL RETRIEVING AND STORING DEVICE" and issued 15 Mar. 1994, both show a receptacle having a handle/standard member or members such that the receptacle can be used to retrieve and store tennis balls. In addition, rolling carts capable of picking up tennis balls are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,504 to Perez et al. entitled "TENNIS BALL RETRIEVER AND CARRIER" and issued 24 Jul. 1984 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,991 to Chen et al. entitled "TENNIS BALL RETRIEVER AND STORAGE CART" and issued 12 Apr. 1994.
These and other currently known tennis ball retrievers have several disadvantages. First, because they are constructed entirely or substantially from metal or other dense materials, these devices are usually quite heavy, even when empty. Second, because the arm members used to form a handle and a standard, depending upon their position, are restricted in their movement, the devices are awkward to move when full. Third, the known devices occupy a large volume of space, due chiefly to the area occupied by the arm members. Although the arm members of several of the known devices are removable, it is inconvenient to have to disassemble the unit in order to store it, only to have to reassemble the unit for its next use.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to overcome the above illustrated inadequacies and problems of extant devices by providing an object storage receptacle that is lightweight, simple to use, and easy to store.
It is another object of this invention to provide an object storage receptacle having arm members capable of free movement throughout a continuous circle about the receptacle.
It is a further object to provide an object storage receptacle having arms capable of telescoping into a first position where the arm members are fully extended for use and in a second position where the arm members are fully retracted for storage.
It is another object of this invention to provide an object storage receptacle having wheels attached to at least one arm member to enable the user to roll the receptacle to a different location during use without lifting and carrying the entire receptacle.